Vegetable Seitan Stew - Argentina

Oh baby!  Today I made an awesome trip down to Baker Creek with Bobbie, her kids and friend Tim.  If you haven't made the trip and are ever in the area, you're in for a treat.  I really would have been in a lot of trouble if I hadn't spent hours last night narrowing down lists to focus my spending.  All heirloom seeds, vegan baked goods and treats, it's amazing!  When I stepped into the bakery and asked if the bread contained any egg or dairy, the lady informed me that she was vegan and made sure that there was "no bad stuff" in it.  How cool is that?  I was quite impressed.  (Forgot to mention!  I bought some tomato basil and it was absolutely fantastic!  We will have to make some when we get back to baking breads!)  I promise to list my purchases at some later point and track my gardening progress (if anyone's interested).

On to the food:  It's been quite a few days since we made this, I've just been offline trying to narrow down my blog time (has anyone else become obsessed with this stuff?).  Liking it is not a problem, but I can spend hours checking new entries on my favorite blogs and visiting every new blog I can find.  And now that I'm writing my own, man, I just have to watch out!  I do plan to continue listing information and links, but tonight it's just the food.  And, though late, there will be a Weekly Intrigue list posted, hopefully tomorrow.

Vegetable Seitan Stew
           (adapted from Extending the Table - Vegetable Beef Stew
  - the original calls for pumpkin or winter squash, but we had none on hand
3 T. olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
18-20 oz. tomatoes (or 2-3 fresh)
1 large green pepper
1 1/2 t. parsley
2-3 cups chunky seitan (depending on how "meaty" you want it) -I used the Veganomicon recipe
17 oz. corn
3-4 potatoes
1/4 c. pumpkin  (calls for 2 c. pumpkin or squash)
2 T. rice
stock or water (enough to cover everything) - for this I used 1/2 c. seitan broth and 3-4 cups water
pepper to taste

In a large pot saute garlic until it starts to brown.  Add and saute onion, tomato and green pepper.   Add pepper and parsley, then set aside.  Brown seitan (I like to sprinkle garlic powder and fresh gr. pepper over it).  Add everything else, cover and bring to a boil.  Once it has started to boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 30 min. or until everything is tender.  Feel free to add more liquid if you like.  It is a stew, though, so chunky is good!